Telehealth doesn't increase the prevalence of low-value care, a new study found.

Here are five things to know from the research published Nov. 7 in JAMA Network Open:

1. The researchers from Ann Arbor-based University of Michigan looked at 577,928 fee-for-service Medicare beneficiaries at 252 Michigan primary care practices between 2019 and 2022.

2. The study analyzed the use of eight medically unnecessary screenings, such as blood tests for prostate cancer risk in men over 75 years old, CT scans for patients with back pain or uncomplicated sinus infections, and colon cancer screening for people over 85. The researchers found no association between high-telehealth practices and low-value care.

3. Telehealth critics have previously expressed concerns that when clinicians see patients virtually, they are more likely to prescribe unnecessary tests because they're unable to evaluate them physically, in person.

4. In fact, two of the screenings -- cervical cancer screening for women over 65 and ongoing blood monitoring for a thyroid hormone in patients with hypothyroidism -- happened less at clinics with high rates of virtual care, the study found.

5. "Our findings are reassuring in the context of current telehealth policy decisions, because there has been concern that telehealth might be increasing access to care to a degree that leads to unnecessary visits and wasteful screening or diagnostic testing," said lead author Terrence Liu, MD, a primary care physician at University of Michigan Health and national clinician scholar at the U-M Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation, in a Nov. 7 statement.